Moogels, Rainbows and Unexpected Realizations
by The Panster
Summary: This wasn't the average family, in fact this wasn't a family at all but at times it felt like it. Takes place during Reeve's capture of Elmyra and Marlene.


Well here goes nothing. A story for Mysticspirtus so I hope she likes it. Please leave a review, I appreciate the honest feedback.

Moogels, Rainbows and Unexpected Realizations

* * *

Peering in the small but comfortable home, one would swear that the scene of a mother, a father and a single daughter no older than five, was a family. The smiles on their faces (though the woman's smile was more reserved and seemed to hold an ounce of uneasiness in it) only seemed to confirm the thought of this being the Tuesti family. In reality, this was home to Reeve Tuesti, lonely bachelor and loyal Shinra employee. The woman and child who had been staying with him for the past few days weren't family or guests; they were prisoners. But prisoner was such a strong word.

Somehow, after being forced to kidnap Elmyra Gainsborough and Marlene Wallace, Reeve had managed to convince Rufus Shinra into letting them live with him for the remaining days of their captivity. Reeve had already been forced to carry out the kidnapping; the last thing he wanted to do was sentence them to Gaia knows how long in a dank dungeon cell below Shinra until the Corporation had what they wanted from AVALANCHE.

Working with the morally corrupt company was the only way Reeve could say he was sorry without losing his job or his head.

After coming home from work, Reeve, who normally would be greeted by an empty house, found two feminine faces waiting for him. At times, he almost forgot this wasn't the family he'd wanted for so long, but rather two people he had to keep locked up from the world. Still when Marlene, the little girl who and instantly took a shine to him, ran to greet him he forgot yet again. Elmyra would remind him.

"I thank you for all you've done for us." She fidgeted as she spoke, no doubt fighting the urge to tell Reeve it was his fault they were taken prisoner in the first place. "Your home is far better than that Underground Dungeon." Elmyra cut him off before he could say you're welcome, "I still don't understand what's going on, but I know it has to do with my daughter."

Instinctively, he donned his mask; a mask he had mastered as a young boy and had perfected while working with the shady Shinra Corporation. Smiling warmly, a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, he said, "Now what makes you think it has anything to do with your daughter? I told you we're are after a group of rebels. Not your Aeris."

"Then why have me here?" she asked, having dealt with Shinra for far too long to buy into their charm and lies.

"As I told you Mrs. Gainsborough, I'm not allowed to say. Just be glad you are here under a roof, sleeping a in warm bed, eating a hot meal and not being tortured in that medieval lair that Shinra constructed," Reeve stated casually as he drunk his tea.

Elmyra looked on him with astonishment. "You think you are doing me a favor? You kidnapped me and a four-year old child! Sure, you saved us from one harsh fate but you've condemned us to another. And what's worse is that I don't even know what's this about. Do you know what it feels like to be a mother knowing your little girl is out there being hunted down like a dog for some unknown reason? Do you know how terrified I am? All the kind gestures in world can't make up for the pain I'm feeling now," she spoke so calmly and smoothly as if she'd rehearsed this for days waiting for the perfect moment to spring it on her captor.

Standing over his seat, eying him silently with sharp blue eyes, Reeve realized how much Elmyra and Aeris looked alike without even being related. Even their presences felt the same. Delicate and innocent yet strong and sure. "There are two types of evil in this world Mr. Tuesti," she began, "The type of evil that hurts others and the type of evil that watches others hurt and do nothing." They stared at one another for a moment before Elmyra smiled weakly, "Now,before I excuse myself; Aeris."

"What?"

Turning towards the spare room she shared with Marlene. "Aeris. You said my daughter's name was Aeris. I've never told you that before."

After that day the neighbors never saw the mysterious woman who suddenly began living in the Tuesti house smile again, not even a fake smile. Relationship problems they all concluded.

"Reeve why is Mrs. Gainsborough mad at you?" It took awhile for the four year old to notice the tension in the household. Thankfully for Reeve, Marlene still hadn't come to understand exactly what was going on because if the little girl had, she'd probably be just as mad at him as Elmyra. Marlene didn't realize that she had been kidnapped or that she was being used as a pawn to ensnare AVALANCHE. She just thought she was at a new babysitter's house until her father returned.

"Mrs Gainsborough is mad because she doesn't understand," he said from his desk chair. He should have been working on some important documents yet he found himself watching Marlene innocently play with his miniature sculpted models of past robots. He never thought that in such a short time he could grow to care for the young girl so much. He even cared for Elmyra perhaps because they were offering him something he'd always wanted: a family; even if it was a artifical one.

"But Mrs Gainsborough is pretty smart," Marlene felt the need to remind him. "What didn't she understand?"

"She doesn't understand the world we live in. She thinks everything is so simple. That there is only one right, but isn't right a matter of perception?"

"What's prebcetion?"

"Nothing," Reeve smiled.

Shrugging, Marlene continued to play the models happily. As she dug deeper and deeper into the huge box that held all of this clay sculptures she found one that really caught her eye. "Where is this robot?" she ran over to Reeve to show him her new favorite toy.

He mentally smacked his forehead. "He's not here right now." Reeve pried the pink moogle sculpture from small hands.

"What is he? What is he doing?"

What should he tell her? He's with your father helping another robot gather data which will eventually be used to bring your father's organization to its knees? "He's off with a friend robot," Reeve managed not to lie. "Doing important, robot things."

"When is he coming back? I want to meet him," she smiled as Reeve handed her back the moogle.

"It won't be for some time I'm afraid." Marlene frowned. "But," Reeve continued, "When he does, how about I send him to your house? He's a big stuff-for-brains anyway; I wouldn't miss him."

Marlene beamed as she begun to jump up and down, "You mean I can have him?! For keeps?" Reeve nodded and the little girl slung her arms around his neck giving him the biggest bear hug she could manage. "What's his name?" She asked while still hugging him tightly.

"I just call him Moogle."

Finally letting go Marlene chirped, "I'm going to name him Moo then." She studied the sculptor once more. "Is he really pink?" Reeve nodded. Marlene giggled.

"What's so funny about that?" he seriously hoped a four year old wasn't about to question as to why a full grown man would make a pink robot as some of his colleges did.

"Nothing, it's just Daddy hates pink!" She laughed again. "It's going to be so funny when he sees Moo."

Reeve's face fell. If Barret Wallace saw Moo...

Giving him one final hug, Marlene ran off to another part of the house, leaving a somber Reeve alone at his computer desk.

"You care for her, don't you?" He wasn't able to think for too long. It was the first time Elmyra had spoken to him since the incident and it caught him off guard. "The others, at Shinra," she spoke the name tartly, "Well one anyway suggested they drown her. She bit two people when they captured us and I guess in Shinra's Moral Codebook, that's just cause for killing a four-year old."

Reeve said nothing.

"I hope you know I think you are scum."

"I hope you know that I don't give a damn about your opinion of me."

"Yes you do. That's why, even though you did this to us, you are trying to help us. Trying to in your mind, make it right. Well, you're failing."

Tired of Elmyra standing over him, he stood up so he could tower over her and hopefully gain the upper hand in this conversation. "You do not understand a thing, Mrs Gainsborough. I am a part of something far bigger than you and me. Something that I've given my life to. It's what I live for and I must do what's in its best interest."

"So that makes it okay to work with such a loathsome, backsliding company?"

"No-"

"So you admit they are loathsome and backsliding?" she advanced on him with confidence, making him feel small and unsure. Elmyra was good at this.

"No-well, in some ways, but-"

She stopped right in front him. Her arms crossed and her eyes fixed on him. "You say Shinra is your life, yet you act like you have guilt. You are even unsure about yourself. You don't know if you are a good guy or a bad guy," Reeve tried to interrupt, but Elmyra silenced him. "You say this is your life yet here you are, feeling guilty over knowing it's because of you that her father will face death or worse. You feel guilty for even being associated with that horrible place, yet you've been programmed by them to think Shinra is your life. I just want to let you know that somewhere out there is my daughter. Sure Aeris may not be my biological daughter but I could care less. She's all I think about. I'd give anything in the world to be with her; to know she's okay. I'd always stand beside her with the greatest of pride. You see, she's my life and, unlike you, I feel no culpability."

Occasionally, it would rain on this side of Midgar; the key word being occasionally. So when it did rain, it was no surprise to see children outside, dancing in the rain and even a few adults outside enjoying the refreshing downpour. Reeve, however, never really cared for rain. He didn't grow up in the often drought stricken Midgar. Where he grew up it rained often and frequently destroyed his boyhood plans for the day. Still, Marlene loved the rain and had somehow convinced Reeve to come outside with her. But luckily for Reeve, by the time they made it out the door there was no more than a small drizzle from the sky above. That didn't stop Marlene from dancing around outside and happily singing a new song that she had just made up.

Standing on the porch, Reeve looked up at the slowly forming rainbow. A rainbow over Midgar. How ironic. Midgar didn't deserve a rainbow. Glancing at Marlene, he smiled sadly. He didn't deserve a rainbow.

Speaking to someone who wasn't there, "What does it matter what I do? All I have is that company. I can never have anything else. It's just hopeless..."

He was startled by a delicate hand on his shoulder. It was Elmyra. This time, she was a donning a true smile. "What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise," she glanced down at her feet and said softly, "That's what my Aeris says anyway and if anyone would know it would be her. She's been through so much yet she's just as optimistic as ever. More people should be like her in this world. "

Reeve nodded, "Yes, they should."

For the first time in nearly a week, the noisy neighbors spied the thought-to-be Tuesti family outside together. All of them looking at ease and maybe even happy. Obviously, this relationship was back on the right track.

What they didn't know was that this was no family. That Reeve was no caring father, Elmyra no capricious mother and Marlene no doting daughter. They were a household that consisted of a kidnapped middle-aged beauty whose thoughts were always on her daughter somewhere far away, a little girl who was oblivious to the situation she was in, and a man who had spent so much of his life fighting to get to where he was that he just did notice it was never where he wanted to be to begin with.


End file.
